2016 Summer olympics | A recap of Friday’s events in Rio

women’s soccer

Germans wins gold medal against Sweden

rio de janeiro

Dzsenifer Marozsan scored early in the second half Friday and Germany went on to give coach Silvia Neid a 2-1 victory over Sweden in her final match for the nation’s first Olympic gold in women’s soccer.

Neid, a two-time FIFA Women’s Coach of the Year, is stepping down following the Olympics. The win at the iconic Maracana Stadium gave her one more title to cap her 11-year career as Germany coach.

At the final whistle, Neid ran with her assistants onto the field and she briefly jumped onto the players’ dogpile.

Sweden, which upset the three-time defending champion United States in the quarterfinals, earned the silver medal for its best finish in the Olympic tournament since the sport joined the program in 1996.

Earlier in the day, Canada defeated host Brazil 2-1 for the bronze medal in Sao Paulo.

Germany and Sweden were playing in the gold-medal match for the first time. It was also the Olympics’ first all-European final.

The German men’s team is also playing in the gold-medal match at the Maracana, facing host Brazil on Saturday. It is the first time one nation has had both its teams in the final.

The German women went into Friday’s match with a tournament-leading 11 goals, paced by Melanie Behringer with five.

Germany had the better chances in the first half, including Anja Mittag’s rebound in the 25th minute that went just wide of the net. Lotta Schelin’s blast three minutes later sailed over the goal and the match was scoreless at the break.

womens water polo

U.S. wins second straight gold medal

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Ashleigh Johnson made nine saves, Kiley Neushul scored three goals on four shots and the United States routed Italy 12-5 on Friday for its second straight Olympic gold medal in women’s water polo.

“To play as well as we did today in that moment and that atmosphere in a gold-medal game when you’ve been thinking about this for the last four years is just, it’s a dream come true,” Krikorian said.

Makenzie Fischer and Rachel Fattal each had two goals for the Americans, who stretched their win streak to 22 games with their sixth victory in Rio de Janeiro by a combined score of 73-32.

“I think we really did change the game,” said Johnson, who was voted the top goaltender of the tournament. “We played completely different than the game’s ever been played before. Really fast, intelligent, it’s really fun to watch and it’s great to play.”

Russia took home the bronze, beating Hungary 19-18 on penalty shots. It’s the first women’s water polo medal for Russia since 2000.

Neushul and Steffens each gave Krikorian a big hug as they left in the final minute, and Neushul patted him on the head. When the final seconds ticked off, Krikorian walked over to congratulate Italy coach Fabio Conti, and then was tackled into the pool by a couple of his jubilant players.

men’s volleyball

Scrappy Americans fall in semis to Italy

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For nearly 21/2 hours Friday, the young, overachieving Americans stayed with an Italian group that U.S. coach John Speraw considers the world’s most talented and destined for gold in Brazil.

The Americans, who began the tournament with an 0-2 start that included a loss to Italy 10 days earlier, ran off four straight victories before falling in a riveting five-set semifinal that Italy won 30-28, 26-28, 9-25, 25-22, 15-9.

“This team fought the entire time,” Lee said. “Losing that first set made us fight even harder. We couldn’t sustain that same level we had in the second and third to put the team out in the fourth set. We had an advantage in the fourth, we had a small lull in energy and that’s when they came back, and they have such good servers that team can come back at any time and be back in a game. You can never count them out.”

The Italians will play for gold Sunday against the winner of Friday’s semifinal between defending champion Russia and host Brazil.

“It was strange. There was a really strong force inside us telling us, ‘Don’t give up, keep fighting,”’ Italy’s Ivan Zaytsev said.

His team fought, all right. Afterward, the players fell to the floor, piling on each other.

Lee brought his American teammates into a huddle for an embrace. Then Anderson and Sander clapped to the crowd as the U.S. waited at the net to shake hands with the winners.

Associated Press